Newsletter

Drive-by shooting in Northwest Jacksonville injures one person

A drive-by shooter fired about a dozen shots that left one man injured on Saturday afternoon at the intersection of 16th Street and Myrtle Avenue, part of an area that has been the target of a crime-fighting initiative for more than a month.

A gunman fired 10 to 15 shots and struck the victim in the upper torso, said Sgt. Hector Rivera with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office. The victim, who hasn’t been identified, was taken to an undisclosed hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

Rivera said he had little information on the shooting. He said police have not identified a suspect and what type of vehicle the shooter was riding in. He said police are still looking for witnesses.

Officers responded to the scene at 1:15 p.m. Investigators closed portions of 16th Street and the parking lot of the Blue Star Discount Food Store, which were dotted with bright green evidence markers next to bullet casings and fragments. A vehicle parked outside the food store was shot multiple times. Rivera said he didn’t know if the victim was in the vehicle.

The Blue Star store was the scene of two separate shootings that happened in a week in March. Three people were injured.

Those shootings were part of a string of violence that prompted Sheriff John Rutherford’s Operation Ceasefire in May. As part of the initiative, police have assigned 60 extra officers to target a swath of Northwest Jacksonville, which includes the scene of Saturday’s shooting.

Rutherford has claimed the initiative has cut violence in the Ceasefire zone in half, but conceded it has taken officers away from other areas.

In the last five weeks, there has been a wave of violence, often occuring outside the Ceasefire zone. In the past week in Jacksonville, there have been 10 shootings that have left three people dead and eight injured. Four of the shootings occurred in or near the Ceasefire zone.